Category: Activism

It’s spring in the Pacific Northwest, a time when plants that pushed leaves through near-frozen winter ground begin their promiscuous blooming. Next to the hardy hellebores, narcissus and daffodils show off their yellow bonnets. Slender willow branches, brown in winter, turn spring-green as their leaves sprout. At Lake Quinault, where we spent a few days …

Image by Jens Rasch from Pixabay Brigid, or Brid in modern Irish, is the triple goddess of healing, poetry, and alchemy. As the goddess of fire, she rules the forge and is the patron of blacksmiths, who through their art transform molten metal into useful, beautiful, and even magical objects. I am the great-granddaughter of …

It’s the darkest time of year in the darkest year in memory, for many of us. Death, suffering, fear, isolation, cruelty, oppression, corruption, destruction, mendacity, malice. It all feels overwhelming. How can we trust light will return? At the moment of Winter Solstice, the balance of light and darkness shifts almost imperceptibly. The days begin …

Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay Within the next six months, we will determine the fate of democracy in the United States. This is not hyperbole. If our democracy dies, many people will die too – even more than COVID-19 has already killed. Black people, Indigenous people, and people of color (BIPOC) are particularly at …

When I imagine the kind of human community I want to live in, I go to the forest in my mind. In the forest, there is no analogue for racism. No exclusion of certain plants from the web of connection, nurture, and support because of their physical characteristics. That would be counter to the natural …

This week I had a stunning dream: I am in a canoe in a stormy sea. The sky and water are the same color, dark gray. The canoe is crafted from two deer hides sewn together. The canoe is our response to the pandemic. I am being asked to allow my heart to be as …

My grandparents Florence and John Taylor. Florence died in the flu pandemic of 1918-1919. What is the coronavirus epidemic calling us to? Ironically, this disease that separates and isolates us from each other as we try to prevent its spread also calls us into deeper levels of connection. Connection with community, with ancestors, and with …

Sr. Phil O’Shea at Solas Bhride Centre, Kildare, Ireland, 2016 “Solas Bhride is a Christian Spirituality Centre which welcomes people of all faiths and of no faith. The Vision of the Centre is to unfold the legacy of St. Brigid and its relevance for our time.” Yesterday, on Jan. 31, the eve of Imbolc, two …

In fall we put most of the garden to bed. After months of reaping the harvest from long, sunny, warm days, we pull up tomato and zucchini plants, spread leaf mulch to keep the weeds down. Overwintering vegetables – arugula, lettuce, turnips, chard, kale – stay green. The rest of the garden turns brown, lies …

Rael San Fratello, Teeter-Totter Wall, from Sarah Cascone, “Artists Briefly Bridge the US-Mexico Border With a Heartwarming Seesaw Linking Kids in Both Countries,” artnet news, July 30, 2019 What skills do you have now, and how are you called to use them in this moment to serve your community? This is not an idle or …